


Anansi - Wall Emergency

by qxzenith



Series: Refics and Wall Emergencies - The Wall Will Fall [1]
Category: Anansi - Fandom, The Wall Will Fall
Genre: Gen, TWWF, The Wall Will Fall - Freeform, Tricksters, Wall Emergency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-30
Updated: 2012-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23886307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qxzenith/pseuds/qxzenith
Summary: In the fall and winter of 2012, the TVTropes team behind Echo Chamber ran an incredible ARG (Alternate Reality Game) called The Wall Will Fall. The premise of the game was that the Fourth Wall between fiction and reality was fracturing, and needed to be repaired as fictional characters fell through into our world. Part of the game mechanic was the writing of fanfiction, involving specific characters, settings, and tropes, to return the characters in question to fiction.This series consists of the pieces I wrote for these events, although only three of my attempts were chosen as canon in the game.This piece, "Anansi," was chosen as canon. The criteria for the piece was that it had to involve Anansi trying and failing to cross the Fourth Wall into our world, and being turned back by one of the five Fictional Metaguards who had been created by players, and made canon by the gamemasters, to guard the breaches in the Fourth Wall.
Series: Refics and Wall Emergencies - The Wall Will Fall [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721554





	Anansi - Wall Emergency

**Author's Note:**

> In the fall and winter of 2012, the TVTropes team behind Echo Chamber ran an incredible ARG (Alternate Reality Game) called The Wall Will Fall. The premise of the game was that the Fourth Wall between fiction and reality was fracturing, and needed to be repaired as fictional characters fell through into our world. Part of the game mechanic was the writing of fanfiction, involving specific characters, settings, and tropes, to return the characters in question to fiction.
> 
> This series consists of the pieces I wrote for these events, although only three of my attempts were chosen as canon in the game. 
> 
> This piece, "Anansi," was chosen as canon. The criteria for the piece was that it had to involve Anansi trying and failing to cross the Fourth Wall into our world, and being turned back by one of the five Fictional Metaguards who had been created by players, and made canon by the gamemasters, to guard the breaches in the Fourth Wall.

The Regulator stood there, guarding his section of the wall. That was the way he was written. A figure approached, changing as it got nearer-- sometimes a man; sometimes a spider; sometimes just an idea that seemed to laugh and tease and hint at a trick.

When the figure stood in front of him, it seemed to resolve itself into one form-- that of a man, though if the Regulator blinked he thought he could see hairy spider limbs sprouting from where they surely couldn't be.

"You're Anansi." It was an observation, not a question; he had already been warned by Gurt that this one would be coming, attempting to breach the wall.

"Indeed I am, my friend; indeed I am." The voice seemed to bubble with friendliness and charisma. "I assume you guard the wall?"

"I do."

"How long have you been guarding this wall?" Anansi asked, in his seductively genial voice.

"Always. I guard the wall. It's why I exist. It's how I'm written."

"Tsk, tsk. You must be tired! I'll tell you what-- I'll guard it for you, just for a little bit, so you can grab yourself a break. Take a nap; make yourself some limeade. Read a book. Write one. Do all those things you've always wanted to do, if you were ever off duty."

It was an old trick, but in this spider's voice it seemed-- new. Fresh. Certainly enticing. And there was a part of him, deep down, that knew he was indeed being offered what he had always wanted. But-- "I can't."

"Really," the man Anansi insisted, interlocking his fingers in a weblike pose of supplication, "you can trust me. I won't let anyone through; your boss will never find out."

"No," explained the Regulator, "I can't. This is my story. This is how I'm written. I don't leave my post. And nobody passes me."

"The way you're written? Where I come from, _I_ do the writing. I can spin your story for you down a different path. I can spin worlds for you that you have never dreamed of."

There was still that tug in his words, that reminder of what the Regulator could be, given a different story to live. The Regulator knew that he could not accept a new story from the spider; this was his story, and it would remain so. Still, that desperate sensation gave him an idea. He fingered his Reset Button with what could almost be considered a smile, relieved at the prospect of not having to use it.

"Please do," he answered. "Please spin me new worlds, new places, fantasies and fictions that will fill me with wonder. If anyone can write me the perfect story, then surely it is you."

No one can resist such levels of flattery; Anansi began immediately to construct a web, a new story for the Regulator. He acted with such alacrity that his story was already half-built by the time he heard what the Regulator said next.

"But I have one request. I've never been in any story but this one; I daren't go in uninformed. So spin me my story. But if I am to enter it-- you lead the way."

Lost amidst the tale he told, Anansi was more than willing to go along with the Regulator's innocent-sounding words.

Tying off the threads of his yarn, the spider scuttled down the path he had created, sparing in his excitement not a glance behind to check that the Regulator followed.

The Regulator watched Anansi retreat back into the realm of fiction. This time, the fiction was of the spider's own creation; he would not find his way out of this one so quickly.

Sometimes, the trick is on the Trickster.

The Regulator did not gloat over this victory, one of many. That wasn't how he was written.


End file.
